It was one night early. “Official” full moon isn’t until tonight, but you could’ve fooled us. It sure looked full enough as we reveled in it last night, watching the moonshine play with the ground-bound objects that have become so familiar to us here at Longleaf Breeze.
On a night like that, you begin to understand why our ancestors learned to start young plants to coincide with the full moon. They knew the extra measure of light would benefit the tender shoots as they reached for the sky. We haven’t started scheduling our planting yet around the full moon yet; right now we have our hands full figuring out when the first frost is due. Soon, though, I bet we’ll begin subtly shifting our planting so that we take full advantage of the full moon.
150 years of cheap fossil fuels have allowed us to ignore silly little things like the extra boost of a few lumens of moonlight. As the age of petroleum abundance wanes, we will all pay more attention to the moon, the stars, the wind, and yes, even the weather.
Until (as) we do, we can always enjoy nights like last night (and tonight, and the next night, and the next . . .), particularly during this season when the brutal heat of summer in Alabama is finally at least contemplating a conditional surrender to fall.
All the people I know plant by the farmers almanac and or traditional wisdom, both of which take the moon into account. I have heard of farmers swearing by planting at midnight on the first full moon of march. Even if this happens to be the night of a record breaking thunderstorm!